THE CANDY-DATE KID-NAP
Young chap, Baby on knee.
hardly old enough to vote. Settle to nap,
Just out of mother's lap, and form dreaming.
knowledge of government still remote. Blasted! Jet fly, he up.
Must take the plunge sometime, though, Maybe now he
now is as good a time as any startle poo' chap.
to walk the straight and narrow, Cause warm feeling.
stand on one's own and be free. Bastard! Wet on my lap!
Here we go:
(moment's hesitation)
right before left.
Got it, good show!
……PERAMBULATION.
The harbingers of hesitation
Slow with time’s tenacity
Stifle the urge to grasp the moment
Shorten the length of memory’s grasp
Weaken the touch of today’s meaning
Soft raindrops unfelt on leathered skin
Sunshine hints at a forgotten warmth
That fevered longing for a faded shadow
A dream held in the cooling darkness
The lunar ice cloud draws but a silent shiver
Etched into the edge of a frozen moment
Its stars the un-melted tears of lover’s longings
I let days flow through my hands,
Their edges soft, like shifting sands.
I linger here, both broken and whole,
Where fear still knocks my careful soul.
I don’t know why, but it remains,
It touches more than it explains.
I care too much, then let it be,
Still something knocks inside of me.
This mischievous voice inside my head
Keeps on walking a fragile thread.
It's a ghostly presence I sometimes touch,
Yet still it knocks, just enough.
I move with it through changing days,
In tricky steps and short delays.
It sits with me, not right nor wrong,
A knock that stays steady but strong.
It’s part of how I think and feel,
It’s how I move, it’s how I heal.
A strange companion I can't ignore,
Will always knock my dented door.
Her every thought and act
Lining in parchment of doubt and fear
Giftwrapped in glitter and illusion
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
1419 NEW SENRYU Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Brian Strand
Contest Judged: 10/8/2025 9:40:00 PM
( 10th Place )
alarm clock shouts loud
i hit snooze for the third time
dreams keep pulling me
Hesitation greets me like a neighbor
Boring its eyes into my skull with a friendly smile
It has no face and no skin
It doesn’t even have eyes
The morning air is hot and solid
Like water but thicker
My hands are sweaty and covered in blisters
And my legs, do not respond
The air of dirty mornings
Shifts in scent
Till the sour tang of violence
Is hanging to interrupt
My soft bones of hesitation
Listen to be called out
For a violent lie
With violent intentions
Are never good for volatile patients
So I did grasp a hope of string
Around my neck did marry me
Such intimate things
To carry me
Away with hesitation and me.
torn between what's good and right
silence at times is quite unbearable
time's a bomb that's unpredictable
casting its fair share of earnest fright
i stumble in the night asking what is real
my heart's no help i don't know how i feel
"I want to be with you. It's as simple and as complicated as that" - Charles Bukowski
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Oh, so you’ve seen better days?
So your shadows walked straighter before,
You’re who you are
and you’re not getting any younger
You said to count me in
Well now I’m counting my blessings
One at a time
to remind me what will be there when you’re not
Is the past behind you?
It seems more like its calling you out to your face
These messages that you ignore
are open doors to the future
Open them wide
so you and your ego can fit inside them
Oh, and how it hurts to be so right
all the time
Your phone is your only life support
and now it’s leading you to
become the things you hate about yourself
It’s ironic how you don’t see it,
looking in a mirror half your life
(She’s on the rise again)
She’s gonna be an internet star!
I’d count your blessings while you can
Your phones your only life support
She was working on being a mountain
but lacked the kind of rocks
that don't roll downhill.
Nobody saw her leave the room
or enter.
Sliding to the furthest corner
she agonized
measuring herself.
Mingling circles
backed their backs away
The girl wanted so much
to say something,
to engage the crowd,
to stand out.
Hesitation inched on.
She disappeared once more
into silence.
i guess theres something right in something wrong but not in incest but maybe in a robin hood situation, its like hesitation before you cut your hair and feel someone stare.
Fair young maiden in shades of blue
Sometimes I'd like to believe it's true
She wants to play me in her game
Like she knew me well by my name
Though her heart could really be pure
But I falter, I'm not so sure
She could be thrilling like a wonder
Or only cares for her plunder
I toured the world in search of deepest cavern,
Into its dark core I yearn to build a castle,
To let my hesitation live the life of his own.
Too much under him I have served
From the infant dawn to the tootless dust,
I have served him enough, haven't I.?
What opulent reward awaits me
For being his only loyal servant?
Procrastination? yeah! procrastination,
A reward of his good for nothing.
#Don't hesitate to do what you belive in.
Maybe I should have told you how much I cared
and admitted how much you mean to me
Maybe I should have opened my heart to you
and revealed my innermost secrets
Maybe I should have let you know that I love you
and could have bared it all
The signs were there if you knew how to read them
~ I waited for you to meet me half way
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
on the way home,
i change the new map
to the longest scenic route
though my Sweets is waiting for me,
i cannot find myself to punctually return
i stop at a newly built rest area because my hypertension is expressing
the mess i made will not go away like my atrial flutter
it just sits in wait like the many times before
my Sweets snaps me out of my fantasy world with a text
always the realist half, she gets on me a bit and asks if i am close to home now
i reply by telling her a multicolored lie about my bladder and a harsh deluge
she replies with an 'unhappy' emoji,
so i start the car, cut on the air, and continue my unfortunate trek back to reality
rental cars and women, tsk tsk, forever the realists
i make it back on time by the skin of my teeth
my Sweets runs to me with open arms and a smile
in my ear she whispers 'i was preparing to kill you'
i reply by whispering in her ear with a sigh of pure contentment 'i know'
Hesitation, our dormant fear
Rising to the surface
Our heart contracts, as these forms near
Oh! Where lies divine grace
Let go hermit, let go
All attachments forgo
Illusion is ego
Agitation
Hesitation
14-January-2022
Quietus
Sub Categories
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